Attention and eye movement related activation of neurons in the dorsal prelunate gyrus (area DP).

Neurons in area DP, the dorsomedial portion of the prelunate gyrus of awake monkeys (Macaca mulatta and Macaca sylvana), responded only little if at all to stationary or moving light stimuli. Circumscribed receptive fields could not be determined in the majority of cells. About 25% of the units became active at a certain gaze position, mostly ipsilateral to the recording site, and with a latency of 70-150 ms after the eye had attained this position with a saccade. About 70% of neurons were activated vigorously when the monkey looked attentively at an object, such as a face, a glove, a hand or simply towards the opening door, and explored it visually. These stimuli elicit attention as well as emotional responses. Photographed objects or faces flashed on a screen produced only little if any response. Our observations, therefore, suggest that the dorsomedial part of the prelunate gyrus may represent activities related to behavioral aspects of vision rather than to features of the visual image itself.